Debate contribution: Orange Order Marches
Debate contribution by Ms Michelle O'Neill on .
- MLA
- Ms Michelle O'Neill
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Orange Order Marches
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5742207
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Yes, I do. That was very evident and on display at the show at the weekend. It is clear that the DUP wants to look backwards. It is very much about blatant electioneering. It is about the DUP covering up for everything else that is going on — the summer of scandal, as you called it. It is all about deflection and distraction from what is happening. What I heard over the weekend and what I hear in the commentary around Drumcree is about supremacy, triumphalism and railroading over the wishes of a community. That was clearly on show at the DUP's party conference at the weekend. It just stinks of entitlement, and people have made up their mind on it. The wider public do not want this going backwards. They want to see politics delivering for them in the here and now, and they want to see us looking towards the future. We see an attempt to reopen something that was settled 28 years ago — as I said, nobody wants it. It begs the question "Why?". Why is the DUP being led by the nose by Jamie Bryson? Electoral reasons. People can see through it, but the Garvaghy community deserves better. I will tell you what: even more than that, the Garvaghy community deserves better, and the whole of society deserves better. They want us to build on the progress of the last 28 years. They want us to look towards the future. They want us to build a society that is fair and inclusive. They do not want us to keep our heads in the sand and keep looking backwards. That should be the obligation of every political leader in the Chamber, not what we see today — not looking backwards and trying to reclaim the First Minister's post just for unionism because it owns it; and not trying to look back to the Garvaghy Road just for electoral reasons. People can see through it.
328 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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